| OCR Text |
Show TheSalt Lake Tribune SUNDAY Sunday, September19, 1999 When Apocalypse Is Around the Corner . MContinued from J-1 When the End Comes, Exit Laughing millennial themesrepresentinga variety of opinions couldfill a library. But the majorityof historians and TIMELINE scholars whohavedelved into the subjects agree in one way or another, humanity hasbeen herebefore. @ Continued from J-1 The Other Millennium In A.D.1000, theendofthefirst millennium, Chris- 1212: Children’s Crusade, in which thousands of youths attempt march on Holy Land, only to endsup in slavery or death from hungerand dises 1217-2h: Fifth Crusade, this time aimedat Egypt insteadofPalestine. 1224-1274: The life of St. Thomas Aquinas, Catholicsaint and theologian, authorof Summa Theologica andother primary works ofthe church 1230: Pope Gregory IXestablishesthe papal inquisition to combat her getingreligious dissentersfortr ture, imprisonment and in some cases, death by burningat thestz 1265-1321: Life of Dante Alighieri, Italian poet whose Divine Comedytakes readers on a poetictourof hell, purgaand heaven 74: The second Council of Lyons res Catholic doctrine that upon death, a person’s soul goes directlyto heaven, purgatory orhell. 1291: Crusaderslose the last Chr tian stronghold in the Holy Land, Acre, to Muslims. ¢ Pure Land, Nichiren and Zen Buddhist sectsflower in Japan. 1305: Pope Clement V moves theseat of the papacy to Avignon, France, where it will remain until 13° kill1320-51: The Black Death str ing tens of millions worldwide, and a third of the population of Europe. 1328-1384: | ife of John Wycliffe, Christianreformer, slatorof first English languageBible. 1429: Teen-agevisionary Joanof Arc leads the Frenchto victory over the En. burnedatthe stake. stantinople(Istanbul) falls an Muslims. Inventionofprinting press b Johannes Gutenbergin Germanyallows printing of the GutenbergBible, making ristian scriptures widelyavailable in Europe. 1478: TheSpanishInquisition targets Jews and Muslims whose conversions to Christianity are suspected as being insincere. Torture and e: fire be- cometheinqui s 1483-1556: The life of Martin Luuther, a German priest who sparks theProtes: tant Reformation when, in 1517, his posts his 95 Theses,or questions, about estab lished Catholic doctrine and practices. Heis excommunicated fourye later, 1491-1546: Thelife of Ignatius Loyo BY BOB MIMS tian Europe wasin the grip of “widespread apocalyptic expectation, especially in England, France ani western Germany,” said Richard Landes,a professor of Medieval History at Boston University and director “When signs and wonders happened earth quakes,eclipses, Halley’s comet, new stars gotvery restive, going out in public penitential proces- and collecting such bogus to millennial-apocalyptic and Lietz said ieeo writing signs ofthe times as a defense of the World...” Y2K-computer bug media Lietz. Lietz is not a stand-up co- “Personally,I've heard enoughof the hype, especially overkill Dave Letterman’sor Jay Leno’s late night television shows, atleast not yet. What Lietz is, when nota 20-yearold computerengineering stu- sometimesturned into major peacerallies where the warriors swore(on sacred relics) not to use their weaponsagainst the unarmed. Other scholarsdisagree with Landes, pointing to dent at Northwestern University in Evanston,Ill., isa written accountsof A.D.1000 as too thin to validate the so-called “Terrorsof the Year 1000.” Instead, they see the dawningof the second millennium as a dud com- World Wide Web lampooner of all things apocalyptic. pared to the hype accompanyingthe coming of the There is no question we are much moreaware of, and probably moreconcerned about the coming milJennium that people were 1,000 yearsago,” said Peter a historian and dean of Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Humanities. Stearns argues that with four-fifths of Europe’s population comprisedofilliterate serfs in the year asmile, if not guffaw. ent I in A.D. 90that the world collected130 signs of The End, could end any moment; by the antipope Hippolytus and of-the-world predictions.” A few examples of apocalypsesthat never were include warningsby St. Clem- albeit less well-known than such standardsas war, fam- detailor at all; they had enoughtrouble keeping track ofthe day and hourofthe week. Landes remainsfirm, however. There were at least pilgrimages to the Holy Land that year — clear evidence,he says, that participants expected Christ’s ine, pestilence, earthquakes, floods or UFO abductions. According to Lietz, itis really time to worry whenthe lobster population suddenly triples, bowling balls are wor- "C hristians showed particular devotion for Jerusalemand went thereon pilgrimagein great numbers, shippedasidols in Kentucky, hoping,in manycases, to be there when Jesus came back on the Mountof Olives,” Landessaid. net browserovertothe Reliclick onthelink to “The millennium,and 103failed end- Atlast check,Lietz had 1000, it would be remarkableindeedif they were commercials and Y2K- complianttoasters,” he said. “But I'll admit I’m not going to be on an airplane come January 1.” His cynicism aside, Lietz has a point. Point your Inter- ously UnmentionedSignsof the Coming Apocalypse” (http://www2.acorn.net/ ~aa423/apocalyp.htm) could makeeven the most stalwart of doomsayers crack awareof the calendarevent or biblical prophecies in With those “Yes2Kia’ (car) gious Tolerance site (www. religioustolerance.org) and His Website “ThePrevi- third. Toledo— drawing on the alignment of the planets — predicted the end for 1186. words: “A funny thing happened on the way to the End median. He has never beenon sions (the Peace of God movement) to pray for God's forgiveness,” Landessaid. “These mass assemblies faithful, and in 1179, John of Mickey Mouse, and all license plates in Utah pases transform to “! Odds are,it will be Mike of the independent Centerfor Millennial Studies. Florida underdictator Th TP LAKE TRIBUNE Come12:01 a.m., Jan. 1, 2000, someoneis bound to Start out a joke with the Disney World secedes from 1 ‘ollowing a Protestant revolt, reformerJohn Calvin and others lead an effort resulting in an independent city state in Geneva, ruled through church courts 1558: Elizabeth | succeeds Mary, her stepsister and Henry VIII's Catholic suc cessor, as queenof England, and com pletes Henry’s theological secession from Rome, 1565; Copernicus, a Polish astrono mer, theorizes that the Earth orbits the sun, challenging the long-held beliefs that Earth was the center of the universe. 1605: Harimandir, the Sikhsect’s Golden Temple, is completed after crafts: menfinish coveringit with gold leaf 1610:Galileo, an Italian astronomer, confirms Copernican theory after per fectingthe telescope. He is condemned as a heretic by the Catholic Inquisitionfor his discoveries. 1620: The Puritans begin emigration from England to the New World in searchofreligionfreedom. 1626-1676; Lif Jewish "messianic 1650; Two Yi jassics are written Siva Samhita and Gheranda Samhita. 1700-1760; Life of Israel Baal Shem Tov, founder of the Jewish Hasidism movement 1703-1758: Life of Jonathan Ed the church. When1033 passed without event,the faithful foundotherreasonsto look for The End. niversary of Christ’s death, sent a shiver through the America. The authorof 45 scholarlyreligious works was time to markthe endofthefirst millennium,it ill had plenty of reasontofear the potential for a biblical apocalypse, Restonfound. All around A.D.1000, ominousevents unfolded: The archbishopof Canterburywas clubbed to death by Danish iaeaies in England; Norway’s King Olaf went downwith his gilded ship, the Long Ss ;and near Christian Constantinople, atinyfleet of Byzantine ships defeated more than 1,000, Viking wai a newsecret weap¢ “Greek fir Forthe paganVikings.it was, literal as good reminderthatour | hae an end. s and history “Every weekat our Eucharist, our communion, we shout out at onepoint: “Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will comeagain,’ ” ran.“I think it is a wayof saying we believe Godis the Lordof history, andthere is a beginning, middle and endto history.I shoutit in 3000.” think as we shoutedit in 1000, we'll haven Containers filled with incend sene, ounts record frightening signs in the such as a bright comet in 1014 and eclipses in 1023 and10: Apocalyptic imagerydid not stop there. In the 1320s, the Black Death, or bubonic plague, do dauieat to have catapulted out of the Gobi Desert, carried by fleas and rats to the world’s ports. Withinthree decades, tens of millions of peoplehaddied. While it was a worldwideepidemic of death, with somescholars estimating 35 million victims in China alone, it is the plague’s impact on Europethat captured historical memory, One third of the continent's population fell to the disease bytheearly 1350s. ‘Oneof the things we needto understandis that throughout the Medieval, and indeedwell into the 16th century, is that The End was an endem tof the culture ina way that most people find difficult to understand today,” said Bernard McGinn, professorof historical theology at the University of Chicago School of Divinity Particularly in the 13th century, aroundthe year 1250 and all through the Mth century, things were pretty grim throughout Europe,” he said. “There were many datesfixed for the comingof the Antichrist or the end times, ete.” torate from the University of Pennsylvaniaandprothe Millennial Prophecy Report (http:// www.channell.com/mpr) “The worldisn’t perfect. Anybody cansee that. Sooner or later any societywill cast up people who findthe situationintolerable, and who imaagine there will be return toa s comingof a new versionof thatstate, “Everyreligion. . imagines a god or goddess creating a perfect worldat the beginning. Who'd worship a deity whocouldn't dobetter than this? But something always hi (0 damagethepristineperfection couldbe sin, accident, almost anything and we windupin this reeking mess weinhabit.” And, If Life Goes On... )) and then 2001 theyear somediehardsin sist is the real dawningof the new millennium pass, along withpredictions of woe bothreligious and secular, will humanitybe able to put its fears of a cat aclysmicendfinallyto rest? Probablynot, though they mayfade,especiallyif 2083 the 2000th anniversary of Christ’s Passion Carth: TiL., jail. Under his suc ’ passes without incident “It won't stop,but I expect that once a 2001 has gone by, a major bottleneck in doomsdayparanoia will have passed,”offers Chris Nelson, a Cedar Rapids, lowa, Looking for Trouble computerprogrammer whooperates the “BriefHis: McGinn, originator of the recentlyrel page Encyclopedia of Apocalypticism, aid that tnd Times traditions are particularly important for Chris: tianity’s origins, giving an urgency to the call to repentance and evangelism. tory of the Apocalypse” Internet site (http:// zeus.ia.net/~criskity/index.htm), Nelson has compiled an onlineindex of more than 120 predictions and propheciesoffered over the past 2000 years, noneof which cametrue. A couple of the more unusual ones: Johnof Toledo, relying on a sup posed planetaryalignment, predicts the endfor Sept. 23, 1186; German theologian-astrologerJohannZim: mermanhas the worldkaput afterthe fall of 1694; and John Cumming of the Scottish National Church saw the end comingin 1862, which he marked as 6,000 years fromcreation. “The prophets of doomwill nevershut their yaps, but I don’t think there will be sucha large numberof “What valuedothey have today? You havepeople who still believe in apocalypticism. Somesaythat is an unfortunateaspect of Christianity andit is better to sweep it underthe rug,” McGinn said. “But there is a third option, that apocalypticism canbe taken seri. ously without beingtakenliterally hereis a symbolicsignificanceto the imagesin the Book of Revelation that tells somethingabout God's control over history,” he added. “I don't believe Utah in 1847, founded in U.S. by Conservative Jews. 1890:In a movewidely interpreted as dhi, revered as “Mahatma” or “Gre Soul.” He parlays his spiritual leader ship in India into a successful campaign for independence from Great Britain that emphasizes nonviolence. He dies from an assassin's bullets. in the a project monitoring more than1,000 religious and secular groups focused onthe apocalypse and/or the millennium. gland and America cessor, Brigham Young, Mormonsfleeto er; anda discorevival rerage. But the clincher may be this one: Kansasis com- I don’t think there willbe a lot of repercussionsof this kindofanxiety,” Stearnssaid. “On the other had been instituted earlier by church founder Joseph Smith. 1896-97; Theodore Herzl publishes Life of Joseph Smith, realizes why Roseanne and Barneyare never seen togeth- It is an approachthatfinds resonance with colleague Martin Marty, a leading authority on faith in challenges the Bible's account of cre- 1805-1844; eryday use; someonefinally the Christian, or Gregoriancalendar by A.D. 1000, and likely couldn't havereadit anyway. But if Christian Europe generally didn’t know it 1703-1788: Lives of John and Charles Wesley, founders of Methodism, in En founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Heis assassinated Accordingto him, it’s time to run for the hills whencalculusis found to have an ev- expected doomsdays as there are in 1999 and 2000,” Utah, the LDS Church end Wahhab. Mid-1800s: Rise of Reform Judaism in Europe under Abraham Geiger Failureof those predictions wasa relief to most, a disappointmentto true be- ina literal Antichrist, for example, but sketching the history of Antichrist tells us something aboutthe na- a concessionto gainingstatehoodfor form movement spreadsin Islamic world, led by Muhammad ibn Abd al plans to take human form. ture of humanevil and howit has been viewedin Christianhistory.” In his book, The Last Apocalypse: Europe in the Year theory of evolution and concept of natu 1750; Wahhabi “fundamentalist” re time ona localtelevision station March 25 to announce 1000 A.D., renownedhistorical researcher James Reston Jr. agreed that most of the world had not adopted 1859: Charles Darwin's Originof the Species is published, popularizing the wards, American Christian preacher whose hellfire and brimstone mes: it Awakening” revival Ww England. preme Being hadblockedout When the Second Cominglingeredafter 1000, it was ‘escheduledto 1033 the supposed 1000th anniver'y of Christ’s passion aid subsequent creation of du movement In 1998, 150 followersof the Taiwanesesect, God’s Salvation Church, moved to Garland, Texas, expecting the Su. pletely enveloped in a locust swarm — just two daysafter the odd rain offrogs. As hope andfaith continue, though, will visions ofthe end, says Ted Daniels, who holds a folklore doc- what eventually becomes the Churchof England, or Anglican (Episcopalian) schedule: the Great Disappointment, theycalled it. Christians to be the 1000th an- ing ites By all accounts, the Byzantines unleashed a rain of destructionof truly biblical proportions. as archbishop of Canterbury, launches 1844. Followers ers soldsoldtheir property, quit their jobs and Prepared,but the Second Comingdid not arrive on places line dancingas the oil, wax and sulfur reducedtheir mighty fleet tofloat- the church in England. The king confis: cates all Catholic lands in his realm, and with appointment of Thomas Cranmer later changed it to Oct. 22, soldiers in German Emperor OttoIII’s army sawaneclipse as a harbinger of doom. 1033, believed by many 1503-1566: Lifetime of Micha' tradamus, French Jewish mystic and au thor of prophetic epistle entitled Centuries. 1527: In England,theroots ofadiffer: ent reformation movement areplanted by King Henry VIII's attempt to annul his marriageto Catherineof Aragon. Whenthepope refuses, Henry persuades Parliament to makehimsovereign over fall on March 21, 1843, and lievers. Atleast, Lietz said,his list is funnier,if not historical. Christian scholar Sextus Julius Africanusthat the end would comein 500; and in 968, Catholicpriests. la, founder of the Jesuit Order of Roman William Miller, founderof the AmericanMillerite sect, predicted doomsday would ral selection, a scientific approach that ation 1869-1948; Life of Mohandas K. Gan: 1869-70: The first Vatican Council as serts the doctrine of papal infallibility 1873: Union of American Hebrew Congregations organized in U.S. by Re: form Jews. 1886: Jewish Theological Seminary ' thefuturepracticeof polygamy, TheJewish State, spar movement for a Jewish homeland and the holdingof thefirst Jewish Zionist Congress. 1 The Hebron Massacre. Arabs kill 67 Jews and injure hundreds more, forcing British authorities then govern ing alestineto evacuate Jews fromthe ity. 1935-1945: Beginning withthe pas: Nelson concluded. Using morediplomatic terms, mostscholars agree. ‘Oncetheevent passes without majorcatastrophe, hand, our culture has produced recurrent predictions of the end of the world. We won't pass this next century without a recurrenceor two.” McGinn: “Themedia hype will obviously recede, and thatis a goodthing. But the fundamentalist and literalist beconfronted with what wedo with the apocalypticel- ementsinourreligioustraditions.” Landes says current apocalypticismhas a secular ally in the Y2K phenomenon. If Y2K consequences prove minor, fears should subside somewhat;if they are serious, dooms erswill have wider, even moreattentive audien “Apocalyptic andmillennial beliefs are among the most powerfully creative anddestructivein the humanbrain,”hesaid. “The culturesthat do not destroy but reintegrate disappointed millennial hopes are the ones that develop.” Whetherthe21st century is oneofparadiseor hell on earth, Landesbelieves,lies largely in human hands. “To paraphrase Umberto Eco, ‘Each generation gets the millennium it deserves.’ This has never been Sotrueas in ourgeneration, when we have so much ability andfreedom.” ‘The abilityto createa better world,if not paradise, is indeedat the threshold, said Gerald Celente, founderanddirectorof the Rhinebeck,N.Y.-based ‘Trends ResearchInstitute. “This will be a demarcationpoint very convenient for historian: id Celente, a socio-economic,cultural and philosophical trends analyst and forecaster who has appearedon numeroustelevision talk shows. “It's goingtobe ry different world. “Fifty years ago you couldgo to cultures largely unchanged from medieval times, using oxen andplows to cultivate land,”hesaid. “Now wehave(brain) stemcell manipulation, genetic engineering,artificial intel ligence it is clearthefutureis unforeseeable expects apocalypticfears to subside some with the new mallenn i ‘They will remain anote,but therewill be much less intense iscent onit that before,” he said. “If I'm speaking over the next two years, I expectit will be on chartingdirections in the new millennium, notthe end.” it is the approach Pope JohnPaul II favors. He has declared a “Jubilee 2000"to open the third millen. nium, urging the world’s billion Catholicstorealize their “duty to sanctify time” and work for ecumenical understanding In his 1994letter, Tertio Millennio Adveniente, the pontiff emphasized, “In theselast years of the millennium, the church should invoke the Holy Spirit with even greater insistence, imploring from himthe grace of Christian unity. This is a crucial matterforourtes: timonyto the Gospel..." tion is launched culminating in the Na: zis’ death campsand exterminationof6 million European Jews. 1948: Jews in Palestine, many of themresettled from war-ravished Ew rope, declare the independence of the State of Israel, prompting the first of several wars with Arab neighbors, In 8 “Six Day War," Israel captures all of Jerusalem and the west bank of the Jordan River 1957: In San Francisco, Sivaya Subramuniyaswami opens first U.S. Hindu temple. 1959: The Dalai Lamafees his native ‘Tibet after Chinese communist forces in: vadethe Buddhist mountainnation. 1962-665; believers aren't going to go away. The next century andthe next millennium we're still going to Vatican Il calls on revitaliz sageof the Nuremberg laws disenfran ing church's spirit, explorationofits chising GermanJews, an era of persecu: place in the modern world, approves Mass in vernacular languages, in place of Latin, 1964; The British rock group the Beatles embri Transcendental Medi tation, instantlybringing international renown to TM teacher Maharshi Mahesh Yori 1968; Assassination of the Rev, Mar: tin Luther King, whosecivil rights move ment for African Americans was largely patterned after Gandhi's nonviolent phi losophy. 1978: The LDS Churchlifts its long: standing ban on allowing African Ameri. cansto holdthe faith's priesthood. 1994; Baruch Goldstein, a Brooklyn: born doctor, opens fire on Muslim wor: shippersin Israe!’s Caveof the Patri archs, killing 29 and wounding dozens more. ° POOR ¢ |
